NASA revealed on Wednesday (October 11) that the sample returned by the OSIRIS-REx contained water and a large amount of carbon, suggesting that asteroids like Bennu, where the spacecraft took the sample from, might have delivered the building blocks of life to Earth.
The material collected by the OSRIS-REx spacecraft three years ago from the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid was unveiled at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, a little more than two weeks after it was parachuted into the Utah desert.
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NASA: Bennu Sample Largest Returned to Earth
"The first analysis shows samples that contain abundant water in the form of hydrated clay minerals, and they contain carbon as both minerals and organic molecules," NASA administrator Bill Nelson said. "Far exceeding our goal of 60 grams, this is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever returned to Earth. The carbon and water molecules are exactly the kinds of material that we wanted to find. They're crucial elements in the formation of our own planet. And they're going to help us determine the origin of elements that could have led to life."
Since the sample capsule landed, scientists have been hard at work studying the wealth of material just inside the top of the canister to conduct an early analysis.
The asteroid sample OSIRIS-REx collected was considered the largest returned to Earth, CNN reported.
